Althouse: "Nuzzi’s book compares in first week sales to those like John Fetterman's 'Unfettered' (2,600 copies in its first week) and Michael Wolff's 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America' (3,000 copies)..."

December 11, 2025

"Nuzzi’s book compares in first week sales to those like John Fetterman's 'Unfettered' (2,600 copies in its first week) and Michael Wolff's 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America' (3,000 copies)..."

"... both of which were largely considered busts. Experts theorized 'Canto' was an example of the disconnect between media elites and consumers, and that scandal-filled headlines preceding its release exhausted the public interest before the book even hit the shelves...."

From "Olivia Nuzzi’s 'Canto' Sells Just 1,200 Print Copies In First Week" (Forbes).

36 comments:

Wince said...: Despite all the ballyhoo here and elsewhere, is it a surprise?; 12/11/25, 11:13 AM
narciso said...: Ha ha; 12/11/25, 11:25 AM
Jupiter said...: So now we have crappy tell-all book experts?; 12/11/25, 11:35 AM
Ralph L said...: She's no Kartrashian.; 12/11/25, 11:35 AM
Jupiter said...: I'm guessing they attended some of the best colleges in the nation, where they majored in crappy tell-all book studies.; 12/11/25, 11:36 AM
Ficta said...: John Fetterman, sure, I see him everywhere and he's turned out to be shockingly non-toxic for a Dem politician. Wolff and Nuzzi...who? I mean seriously, I've tried to skim a couple of things about Nuzzi, but my mind just recoils. She's some sort of unethical journalist, right? I really have no idea. And Wolff. I'm drawing a complete blank.; 12/11/25, 11:58 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: "They quit, but like a bad ex, many of them keep talking about us, and saying they want us back, only on their same old toxic terms. No thanks! We’re going to keep working for ALL Americans!"

Oh wait that was AAG Dillon not Nuzzi.; 12/11/25, 12:06 PM
mikee said...: IANAL but the phrase used in the post, "exhausted the public interest" assumes at least one fact not in evidence, IIRC my Law & Order courtroom scenes. What public interest? And can one exhaust that which never existed in the first place?; 12/11/25, 12:07 PM
Achilles said...: "Nuzzi’s book compares in first week sales to those like John Fetterman's 'Unfettered' (2,600 copies in its first week) and Michael Wolff's 'All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America' (3,000 copies)..."

The political class in our country is not very big anymore.

They don’t realize how quickly the ground is eroding under their feet.; 12/11/25, 12:10 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: You'll still learn a lot more useful info from Art of the Deal. Better use of your time too.; 12/11/25, 12:12 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: My local library has a huge "bestseller" section full of the latest books that are in news and keyed off the NYT/Wapo best seller list. And...no one seems interested.

I talked to the librarian and he confirmed it. Nobody wants to read about the lastest "hate Trump" book or memoir from Politican or Celebrity X. I think a lot of college educated people have disconnected themselves from Hollyweird and the entire MSM.; 12/11/25, 12:26 PM
J Severs said...: I, a non-expert, theorize that people realized the book would not be fun or interesting to read.; 12/11/25, 12:30 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, why are you so obsessed with a loser like Olivia Nuzzi? Your “Olivia Nuzzi” tag takes me to post after post after post. She’s not an especially insightful journalist and — on her best day — she’s a mediocre wordsmith.; 12/11/25, 12:36 PM
Eva Marie said...: On the book front, 107 Days by Kamala Harris seems to be doing better than Hillary Clinton’s post election memoir, What Happened. It surprises me that 107 Days is doing as well as it is.
What surprises me even more is The Look by Michelle Obama. That should have been the perfect Christmas gift of 2025. But it’s at #121 on Amazon’s list of top selling books.Of course, any author would be proud of those sales but for Obama they are less than what I expected.
As far as Nuzzi, her sales are quite a bit higher than Cheryl Hines achieved with her memoir. (That’s my opinion only - based on Amazon rankings. Sales figures haven’t been released.); 12/11/25, 12:45 PM
boatbuilder said...: The alleged interest in this Nuzzi person is about as real as the massive online popularity of Nick Fuentes.; 12/11/25, 12:47 PM
Hassayamper said...: Here's a secret: EVERY political memoir sells like shit when people buy it with their own money, and with the intention of reading it themselves.

If you hear of a real blockbuster in this genre, it has been bought in wholesale quantities by entities wishing to influence or reward the politician who wrote it (or more likely, had it ghost-written for him). Most will go straight to the dump without being taken off the pallets.

It speaks well of Fetterman that the book is such a dud.; 12/11/25, 1:07 PM
Aggie said...: 1200 copies? And that's just one for each partner.; 12/11/25, 1:33 PM
Temujin said...: Nobody has ever cared about what Olivia Nuzzi has to say about anything.; 12/11/25, 1:43 PM
Peter Spieker said...: 1200 books works out to about one book for every 275,000 Americans. To borrow a term from baseball statistics, Nuzzi appears to be operating below replacement level, professionally. The journalistic equivalent of a career minor league second baseman would get better results. I mean, if you created a fiction book, written by a made-up journalist about non-existent politicians and celebrities, and marketed it as a true story, it would sell better, wouldn't it?; 12/11/25, 2:49 PM
Kakistocracy said...: So there has been more combined articles written, social media threads, bloggers—blogging and podcasts about it than actual books sold. America doesn’t care about the Olivia Nuzzi story, despite the fact that it seems like the American media can’t get enough of it.

Nuzzi is like Trump in this sense: the worst thing about America is not that someone that awful exists, the worst thing is that much of the press promotes and normalizes it for clicks.; 12/11/25, 3:00 PM
tim maguire said...: Political memoirs never sell well. Most are vehicles for payoffs (huge advances/ghost-written book—it’s just free money). I have no idea how a nobody like Nuzzi got one published.; 12/11/25, 3:11 PM
narciso said...: Similarly
https://notthebee.com/article/time-names-wnba-mvp-aja-wilson-athlete-of-the-year; 12/11/25, 3:45 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Her problem is that her writing sucks; 12/11/25, 3:50 PM
Howard said...: Books so bad from weak status people, cannot even Garner money laundering billionaire bulk bribe purchases.; 12/11/25, 3:59 PM
JRoberts said...: Based on my almost 20 years in publishing and studying sales “bell curves”, my sense is Nuzzi has just experienced her best week of sales.

It all downhill from here.; 12/11/25, 4:16 PM
William said...: By way of comparison, the books of both Hillary and Kamala sold over 300,000 copies in their first week. Of course, they were better funded and could afford to hire good ghostwriters. Nuzzi was a writer and didn't make enough money to be be able to hire a good ghost writer......It boggles the mind that there are over 300,000 people who would hurry to buy books containing the pensees of Hillary and Kamala. The figures for Nuzzi look about right. I would have expected Kamala's book to be in that ballpark, but no.; 12/11/25, 4:33 PM
narciso said...: Clearly those were bulk purchases; 12/11/25, 4:50 PM
Mary Beth said...: I have no idea how a nobody like Nuzzi got one published.

I assume because they wanted something against RFK Jr. You know how fanatics like to attack those they consider apostates.; 12/11/25, 4:55 PM
James K said...: So she’s writing for a highly selective audience.; 12/11/25, 5:01 PM
tim maguire said...: William said...By way of comparison, the books of both Hillary and Kamala sold over 300,000 copies in their first week.

How many were bought by the gross and immediately pulped because the purchases had nothing to do with the book?; 12/11/25, 5:15 PM
Jim at said...: OK, this is the third or fourth post about this Nuzzi person?

And I still have no idea who she is or why I should pay attention to her.; 12/11/25, 5:20 PM
McSavage said...: TradPub is money laaundering.; 12/11/25, 5:51 PM
Big Mike said...: @Jim at, there are way more Althouse posts with “Olivia Nuzzi” tags. I have no idea why Althouse should be enamored of her writing.; 12/11/25, 6:00 PM
Not Illinois Resident said...: Her book advance paid for intended services rendered, prepublication publicity to slander of RFK Jr.; 12/11/25, 6:12 PM
Yancey Ward said...: She should run for and get elected to Congress, then she can take bribes through book sales. No wants to bribe Fetterman now- the Democrats plan to primary him in 2028.; 12/11/25, 9:44 PM
Grundoon said...: I think it is odd that the number of print copies is the only sales measured presented. I buy more audio books than print books now. I have a Kindle account, too, but I have moved my book reading mainly to driving time so it is audiobooks for me. (I didn't read the article so maybe the sales figures for electronic copies is stated.); 12/12/25, 12:36 PM